"By any of the major criteria of harm - mortality, morbidity, toxicity, addictiveness and relationship with crime - cannabis [marijuana] is less harmful than any of the other major illicit drugs, or than alcohol or tobacco."

Marijuana definitely can be abused, but that is no justification for institutionalizing hypocrisy and establishing a government protected monopoly for alcohol and tobacco.

Everyone gives lip service to the critical importance of education but few parents know the facts about marijuana and almost all drug education programs and public statements about marijuana mislead or exaggerate. The result for our children is to undermine accurate warnings and respect for authority.

The best way for the general public to have a reasonable sense of the dangers of marijuana - or any drug - is through comparison with alcohol, a comparison that politicians carefully avoid.

To test the rationality of how we react to marijuana use, we would do well to replace the word "marijuana" with the word "beer" or "wine" and see if the statement makes sense. Questions of legality aside, the beer or wine is probably more dangerous.

It is incredible that a society that routinely uses alcohol would punish those who prefer to use a demonstrably less dangerous drug.

Excessive alcohol use leads to organ damage and brain damage while there is no clear health danger from marijuana other than respiratory problems, usually small. Memory losses with alcohol are severe relative to marijuana.

Alcohol is considerably more intoxicating than marijuana. Moreover, one attribute of alcohol is to make the user less aware of impairment while marijuana actually produces an exaggerated sense of impairment, thus promoting caution as opposed to the reckless actions common with alcohol inebriation.

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